Bored, Border and most Boarding

The last 2 pics show the Mekong river border crossing between Chiang Khong (Thailand) and Huay Xia (Laos). It's only 100m or so and costs about 20p each to cross. Immigration on the Laos side is a bloke at a tressle table who asked why so many Brits were visiting Laos.

We'd heard and read so many different opinions of the boat trip on the Mekong between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang that we expected a long, boring, uncomfortable journey at worst and a visually stunning, bustling adventure at best. We got the latter with a bit of discomfort thrown in for free.

It's a 2 day trip with a stop on the first day at half wayish Pakbeng. Described by Bec as "a small village in the middle of the jungle". Not quite but the accommodation was pretty basic.

After an enjoyable breakfast we got down to the boat early for the 2nd day's travel. We left our bags on our seats and then I got off again to stretch my legs. OK, I went to see if anyone else would fall on the steep descent down to the boat. I'd missed someone fall earlier and had been gutted.

The boat filled up quickly but as we set off both Bec and I still had double seats to ourselves. Bonus. The previous day we'd stopped when locals flagged us down. An hour and a half in and we were stopping for the 2nd time already. I did a quick calculation: people on shore + people already on boat = v crowded.

As we approached the the shore little Miss Apprehension appeared on my shoulder "see those pigs that are being untied, they're getting on, they are!" "Yeah, right" replied Mr Unsure. A jovial local lady asked Gronje, an Irish farmer's daughter, to help her pass things onto the boat. No probs. As she nonchantly took the 3rd box she screamed in surprise when she saw the contents. How we laughed at her when we saw them - about a dozen little cutey ducklings. Aww. "The pigs are coming" whispered Miss Possibility. "Ha" laughed Mr More-Unsure. Bec's voice interrupted my "shoulder" discussion. "The lady's gone to get her pigs" I laughed at her "joke"

The biggest pig was tied up first, front legs together then back legs together, turned upside down and a pole between both sets of legs to carry on board. All you could hear between the pigs' squeals were the chirps from the ducklings as the Westerners panicked. 4 pigs were tied up and put in front of the teenage captain's window on the deck. Just the goat to board unless the elephant was out of view(!) The goat was shoved onto the rough was minimum fuss and we were off again.

15 mins later we were flagged down. When the locals piled on I weighed up my options. There was a little old man who was tiny, if I shared with him and his basket of chickens then a) he might not be going all the way b) I wouldn't get a smaller backside to share with and c) worse might board. Blimey, some scousers or Aussies might get on!

I gestured to the 250yr old man to sit down next to me. He smiled at my act of outward kindness, I smiled back and we bonded. It was 11:00 am and we had 6 hours ahead: the pigs were squealing, the goat was giving us his Roy Castle impression and my new mucker fed his chickens. Bliss.

As you can see from the pics there was plenty to distract us, elephants , water buffalo, stunning scenery and a beautiful clear blue sky.

The pigs got off before us and were untied and back on their feet in no time. Around 5ish we arrived in Luang Prabang and while some complained they were bored I'd not even had chance to listen to the iPod.